


Phantom In a World of Phantoms

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Lies, Misdirection, and Terrible Truth [14]
Category: Mythology - Fandom, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: GFY, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-11-11
Packaged: 2017-11-18 10:32:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He isn't a hero, to go into battle the way the Avengers do, and he's never - quite - wanted to be. His place, his domain, is as much the shadows as anything else. It's watching and making sure that the right resources are brought to bear on a problem, that the right information makes it into the right hands. Fury thinks of himself as the man who pulls all the strings, and Coulson is content with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phantom In a World of Phantoms

There are things he does not put into his reports. Things that he doesn't think SHIELD or Fury have any right to know, nor have the capacity to understand enough not to lock him up. There's a reason he is the loyal, competent, capable agent that he is, beyond the training. Beyond the knowledge that rests in his head of research and patience and diplomacy and properly filed paperwork.

There's a reason he isn't dead.

He isn't a hero, to go into battle the way the Avengers do, and he's never - quite - wanted to be. His place, his domain, is as much the shadows as anything else. It's watching and making sure that the right resources are brought to bear on a problem, that the right information makes it into the right hands. Fury thinks of himself as the man who pulls all the strings, and Coulson is content with that.

He doesn't like actually pulling the strings himself, anyway. It's more in his nature to identify what strings need pulled, and giving them to Fury to be pulled at that man's direction. A phantom, a shadow, quiet and steady and there. If Fury and SHIELD hadn't provided him a place where he could do that, someone else would have. He's glad SHIELD is the agency who did, though. It suits him better than any other one he's aware of.

But there is a reason he isn't dead. And it isn't that Loki aimed poorly - he's certain Loki knew exactly what he was doing, when he stabbed Coulson in the back.

It's not that he didn't bleed to death, as he's almost certain he at least nearly did. Enough that he shouldn't have been back on duty when he was. It's not that he heals swiftly, or some experiment of SHIELD's saved his life. He knows it's not.

He wouldn't be who he was if he had to rely on them to keep him alive.

There's nothing in his background checks, in his family history, that would make anyone think he has something special in his genetic make-up. That he might be blessed or something by some being beyond their current comprehension. He's just an ordinary man, to all appearances.

Yet he lives, and he doesn't tell SHIELD that it isn't their medical knowledge that has kept him that way.

It's not his secret to tell, and he's not even certain he'd remember it if he went to tell anyone. It makes the crows that Loki creates to watch him all the more disconcerting and worrying, though he doesn't tell Fury why. He won't tell them, and eventually he'll retire to some quiet backwater, and fade away. A quiet grave, a quiet death.

He knows how he will die, and it won't be in conflict, it won't be at the hands of Loki Lie-Smith. It won't be violent or sudden or unexpected. Not to him.

There's a reason he isn't dead.


End file.
